When it comes to your brand, what does it mean to stay on message? Why is it important?

Successful businesses identify a niche; it may specialize in an area and become an expert in its field. It’s handy to develop key messages and a recurring narrative about your business’ history and expertise.

Overarching key messages

Key messages are considered the main points a business wants its target audience to associate with the brand. For your brand, staying on message means consistently conveying your brand’s key messages (often the same ones recurring over and over) in innovative and engaging ways.

Data shows people engage with video and animation more often than posts with only photos or text. 

Apple is a great example. Most recently, the brand wanted the public to remember it takes privacy and security seriously. So they put out a commercial with engaging video and music. 

The song’s lyrics repeated, “Mind your own business. Why don’t you mind your own business?” The key message—Apple takes security seriously—is conveyed. It’s catchy and memorable.

The company has also built on this messaging by repeating it in many different media over a long period of time. This repetition reinforces it as a key message and makes it more credible and memorable the more they say it. 

We expect this was a deliberate strategy that was developed years in advance as the company pushed forward with software and privacy upgrades to its systems. So everything from news stories to the company’s ads were in sync. 

Word choice is crucial when thinking about staying on message, but it’s not necessarily what we’re talking about here. There are endless ways to say the same thing, and nowadays, there are endless channels for you to use too.

Keep it fresh! Come up with new ways of relaying your messages. If you haven’t used videos or animation, give it a try to boost engagement. 

In close

Staying on message is not difficult, but it takes time to strategize. As a successful brand, you should have your core values and messages defined, and from there, it’s about communicating those values and messages in strategic and innovative ways.

When a successful brand can stay on message, the brand has evidently defined its key messages and invested in communicating those messages. 

Staying on message adds credibility to your brand and its voice. It drives home the point, so your audience will always remember you. 

And all you have to do is ask an ambassador of any successful brand - they like to be remembered.